The rise of reputation in politics

The competitiveness of nations has been measured on several matrices, with economic growth and development as the core measure. This is crucial as it directly impacts society’s quality of life. Nations have added new variables to these matrices, some of which have tracked and benchmarked indices to create acceptable thresholds defining investor confidence. What has been occupying the investor community's attention and growing into a national balance sheet matter is the reputation capital of a nation. This, despite its intangible character, has been able to be reduced to numbers and ratios. 

 

Countries are destinations of human-valued activities and assets. How a country conducts itself is a source of how humanity will judge its relationship with citizens and the enforceability of the law. The credibility of the state and its agencies is a modern-day business issue. Ethical people who want to do business with a country would want to interact and transact with societies that fit their values; they will leave an evil society. 

 

In the current world order, where countries are viewed as corporate entities with political sovereignty, the reputation of a nation has become a valuable asset. The task of maintaining a sterling reputation has now become a significant challenge for national leadership. This intangible yet fragile asset is crucial for sustaining global perception and fostering sound international relations and cooperation. The reluctance to acknowledge the importance of ethics is a refusal to accept the truth that the citizens of a country, whether at home or abroad, are its moral agents. Their character and integrity are among the most fundamental determinants of their attractiveness as investment and tourist destinations. 

 

The standards of a rules-based order, respect and honouring of contracts, availability and affordability of human competence, public policy certainty and political stability, guaranteeing of the cardinal human freedoms found in standard Bills of Rights, and a reliable and functioning public infrastructure have become key components of a sterling national reputation. The level of character and integrity of a nation's leadership, political or otherwise, is a complexity whose poor management can generate a reputation crisis for a country. As a social return to capital, voters' behaviour can significantly impact a nation's reputational capital. 

 

The depth at which a country is integrated into the international financial system determines how much its economic system can survive. This has implications for inflation and, by extension, its monetary policy, which determines how its financial system insulates or protects its citizens against global trade shocks. The truism that a nation's reputation is built on the character of its leadership across the board and that character is a function of integrity and fair play, societies' citizen integrity management systems have become nonnegotiable in how countries are rated. The impact of political decisions on a nation's reputation and economic stability is significant, as it determines how much its economic system can survive and how its financial system insulates or otherwise protects its citizens against global trade shocks. 

 

Other sovereign publics hold countries to the same legal and ethical standards as they do to individuals. The sovereignty of individuals has subjugated that of nations in matters of integrity management and, by default, reputation. This has made patriotism move beyond the realm of a national ritual but a collective awareness that should emerge from an expanded perspective of politics, economics, and civility. Organs of state and business enterprises ought to serve humanity, not vice versa.  The decision to transition South Africa from an absolute majority party-governed state to a multiparty and coalition-governed democratic order through a Government of National Unity will be recorded in history as one of the most creative ways to manage RSA's sovereign reputation. 

 

The GNU has become a technology with which soft factors such as culture, trust, integrity, dignity, fair dealings and favourable attitude could be considered as politicians sweating out their battles for state power and the prize of politics and government, how the country has or could have reacted to the taste of being in a political dispensation with any of the political parties having an absolute majority, has had an impact of RSA's net reputational capital. The behaviour of voters during the past election is a social return to capital. The private sector is now obliged to start seeing a surplus, with which it can begin to invest in RSA's productive capacity, especially in the manufacturing and beneficiation of mineral resources.

 

In their individual capacity, RSA political parties have received a warning from voters that we are ready as a society to dissociate with political brands with a reputation that generates a corresponding loss of trust and credibility in us as a sovereign nation. For now, being associated with the government of national and provincial unity, and we want to believe it will be extended to local unity, has parallel intangible and economic benefits.

What is certain is that, in RSA, no political party will be able to call the shots in our politics as much as some did in the past. A ‘cloud’ of new political players has replaced the centre, each with a proven mandate and power to shape political or governmental outcomes, but none with enough power to unilaterally determine them. The reputational returns of our votes should give us good governance; we dare not fail. CUT!!!